SoCal Fluids Symposium at USC. Photo/Ivan Bermejo-Moreno
On April 14, 151 participants from nine Southern California universities gathered at USC to explore the world of fluid dynamics during this year’s Southern California Flow Physics Symposium.
The symposium, commonly referred to as SoCal Fluids, brings together local fluid dynamics researchers for a day to exchange ideas and encourage collaboration. This year, the symposium covered a wide-array of topics including flow around wings and flying devices, biolocomotion, supersonic flows, flow control, and the application of data analysis and machine learning.
Image submitted to the event’s Gallery of Fluid Motion: Fluorescent Marangoni flow of a drop of surfactant-rich sunflower oil spreading on the surface of a pool of glycerol. Photo/Mike Garcia
The event was organized by the USC Viterbi School of Engineering Department of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering faculty and staff, including Assistant Professor Ivan Bermejo-Moreno, Assistant Professor Mitul Luhar and Professor Geoff Spedding. The symposium structure mimics the larger American Physical Society Division of Fluid Dynamics conference, typically referred to as APS, held every November.
“SoCal Fluids is thus a great opportunity to see what has happened since the previous APS and catch up on research with our colleagues in neighboring institutions in a somewhat more informal atmosphere,” said Bermejo-Moreno. “It is also a valuable opportunity for some students to have their first exposure to the presentation style that they will need to adhere to at APS.”
To facilitate education and exposure, only undergraduate students, graduate students and postdoctoral researchers are invited to give presentations, but faculty members are encouraged to attend. “Both Ivan and I have attended and appreciated this event as students and postdocs and so we welcomed the opportunity to organize the event for the ‘next generation’,” said Luhar.
Throughout the day, 87 presentations were given by the students and postdocs, 26 of which from USC researchers.
Said Bermejo-Moreno, “Everyone put in their best effort and made it possible for all of us to quench our thirst of knowledge and satisfy our curiosity.”
Published on April 24th, 2018
Last updated on October 26th, 2018
